San Diego  A Navy couple were found shot to death Wednesday in their Serra Mesa military-housing apartment in an apparent murder-suicide, San Diego police said.

The 36-year-old husband apparently killed his 26-year-old wife and then shot himself, police homicide Lt. Ernie Herbert said. An 18-month-old boy was found inside in his playpen unharmed, and a 5-year-old girl who lives at the house was safe at a day care facility.

The woman’s father, Michael Frazier of Houston, told 10News that his daughter, Portia Southern, was a wonderful mother to the two children and was “very family-oriented.”

“She was a model housewife,” Frazier said, adding that he had no idea there were problems with her husband, Sekai Southern.

“I thought he was a pretty good dude,” Frazier told 10News, a media partner of The San Diego Union-Tribune. “We all thought he was a pretty good dude.”

Frazier said that although his daughter loved being in the Navy, it was hard for her to be away from her family during an overseas deployment.

He said his ex-wife, Portia Southern’s mother, was on her way to San Diego. He said his daughter grew up in Houston and had been an “outstanding student.”

“I love my baby,” he said of his daughter.

Police were called to the home on Wainwright Lane near Hurlbut Street about 12:40 p.m. after a neighbor reported a family disturbance.

The first officer to arrive saw a woman trying to leave the residence and a man pulling her back in. The woman indicated the man might have a gun, Assistant Police Chief Boyd Long said.

The man barricaded himself inside the residence, Herbert said. SWAT officers were called and evacuated a two-block area. Efforts to negotiate with the man were unsuccessful, and SWAT officers entered the house about 3:40 p.m. They found the bodies and the toddler on the first floor of the two-story residence, Herbert said.

At one point during the incident, the husband had called police and a family member and told both that he had shot his wife, police Lt. Andra Brown said. The family member then also called police, Brown said.

Long said that SWAT officers had reported hearing muffled sounds, but it was not known if they were gunshots. He said a witness may have heard two gunshots before police arrived.

A couple who live across the street said they heard a woman screaming and a gunshot. Marine Lance Cpl. Danny Solis and his wife, Paige, said they did not know the Southerns personally but said hello to them and the children.

“It was definitely a high-pitched scream,” Paige Solis said.

She said hearing the gunshot and the police activity put her “on edge” because her husband is home in a wheelchair recuperating after being shot in the leg during a deployment to Afghanistan.

Lance Cpl. Solis said he hears frequently of domestic violence among military couples.

“There is a lot of stress in this job,” he said.

Agents from the Naval Criminal Investigative Service and private security for the military housing also responded to the scene. Ed Buice, a spokesman for NCIS, said Wednesday night that he could not comment on the investigation.

Herbert said both children were taken to the county’s Polinsky Children’s Center.